


Eidolon

by LadyStardust97



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Crime, F/M, Ghosts, Humanstuck, Multi, Paranormal, Strong Language, additional tags to be added as we go, also kind of ooc I guess, dead bodies, glamorized police investigation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2017-12-29 22:33:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 9,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1010907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyStardust97/pseuds/LadyStardust97
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat Vantas is a withdrawn high school student who can see ghosts. Meenah Peixes is a high school drop out who gets hit by a train. They meet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Beginning

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Фантом (Eidolon by LadyStardust97)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1423048) by [Mr_Scapegrace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mr_Scapegrace/pseuds/Mr_Scapegrace)



She can hear the train going down the tracks.

She can hear the train going down the tracks.

Her vans hit the dirt with nearly the same sound as she runs.

She is an athletic girl, but her breathing still feels short.

How long has she been running?

She's so tired.

" Get back here, you ugly Finnish bitch!"

She can hear a harsh, accented voice scream from not-so-far behind her.

Keep running.

She doesn't know what to do.

The key on her eyes is small.

What will she do?

As she skids around a stack of freight train cargo, her glasses sail away, hitting the ground.

Fuchsia.

The tracks.

It's a pitiable goal, but if she can just reach the tracks-

Her sole strikes the metal.

There's a wail from the train.

Her soul strikes the metal.

-

Karkat Vantas hated school more than anything.

He didn't hate writing.

He didn't hate reading.

He hated the students and the faculty.

Most of them thought he was crazy.

It wasn't his fault that he saw goddamn dead people.

It wasn't his fault that he had trouble telling the dead from the living.

If anything, they should've pitied him for it, because it sucked dick to see a girl on the morning news as missing, only to hear her beg her friends to pay attention to her at lunch.

He'd given up on ignoring them a long time ago, anyway.

He didn't know her that well, just that she borrowed props from the Drama club often (Vriska and Eridan complained endlessly about how they were always returned broken).

She was the first ghost he'd seen at the school since he'd convinced all of its former spectres to move on; and the most recently deceased of that batch had been a teacher who committed suicide in the early 90s. 

Not a student who'd probably been murdered, who had been in his grade, who he'd seen alive a day before.

" Ah, hey, Mierfa..."

He caught up to her after her friends had left.

She swiveled around to look at him.

Awkward, skinny, too-short Karkat Vantas, with the weird cheekbones, who saw dead people.

And she screamed.

" They can't be right, they can't be right, you can't... You can't be the only one who sees me!"

This was the part that made his stomach turn. 

Telling the newly deceased what they were.

" Yeah, I hate to tell you, but I'm not batshit insane."

She studied him intensely, then looked down at her hands.

" I... I'm not see-through. I'm perfectly fine. They were just pulling a prank on me, is all..."

He began his 'yeah really' speech. Carefully rehearsed. He'd written it three years before.

" I hate to break it to you, but just because you're not transparent doesn't mean you're not as dead as fuckin' Mozart. That's how it is with all the ghosts I've met. None of them have looked like a sheet with some holes cut into it. You all look like normal people."

She continued to stare at her hands.

" N...No way. I had a mixed martial arts tournament. I had a date with Nektan on Tuesday. I can't be dead, I had reasons to live, nobody I know would kill me. No one else is dead..."

He waved his hand through her head.

Her short black hair didn't stir.

She looked up, shuddering, and then screamed some more.

-

After school, he walked home with her.

" Are you sure you can help me? I don't remember what happened. I biked home from my nunchaku lessons last night and went to sleep. I mean, that's it, everything was normal, I didn't black out or anything..." 

" No one remembers the dying part. I wouldn't want to."

She sighs.

Still, in a way, it bothered him.

Mierfa had told him all about her schedule on the walk, and he didn't see how she could be dead, though she was.

She took self-defense classes. She was district champion in the girl's division of the local amateur MMA league. She'd made the news the year before for putting a would-be mugger in the hospital.

She didn't seem like the kind of girl who could be killed, but she was already dead.

" I guess it's for the best. I bet dying hurts way worse than breaking a bone..."

" What way did you take to go home?" 

It struck him. 

If she used the same path every time she came home, and it was obscured enough from the public view...

" Oh, there's this backway that I always use- I mean, I used to use..."

She looked down at her feet.

" Don't have a pity party over there. We're gonna find your body, find out how you died, and if you got murdered, we're gonna send the sick fuck that did it to prison."

She stopped walking and stared at him.

" For a short, skinny weirdo, you're actually a really cool guy, Vantas."

He shrugged.

" Hurry up and start walking again, I have no idea where the fuck I'm going."

" I kinda wish that I could've been friends with you..."

There it was, there was the worst part. 

Because that was what they all said.


	2. Protection / Destruction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We are introduced to the shining star of the Caledfwlch police force, and Mierfa forgets to say goodbye. Meenah gets pissed.

It had rained three days prior, and the canopy of leaves hid the sun. 

They were following the furrow her tires had made in what had been mud.

" That's my bike."

She spoke in a soft voice, a shocked voice, and ran over to the undergrowth.

" Help me! I can see the handles!"

Her fingers went through the leaves of a bush as she continuously tried to push it aside.

He hurried over to her and pushed the plant away.

And there it was, her bike.

Twisted and muddy, a tattered backpack still hanging from the broken handles.

Mierfa walked over to it slowly.

He followed her, to look for evidence.

The tread of an unfamiliar shoes had dug into the now-dry mud, along with marks from something being dragged. 

Not the bike, more like... The heels of someone's feet.

Someone being dragged.

He swiveled to face her.

" Mierfa-"

She was trying to clean the dirt off her bike with her jacket, her hands going through the hard mud and metal again and again.

" Karkat, help me, my mom is gonna be so mad..."

He swallowed thickly.

" Sh... She bought this bike for my birthday... She spent a lot of money on it... Look at it now, it's so dirty..."

" Stop," he whispered.

She was shaking.

" Help me! Why aren't you helping me?!"

She was crying.

" Please stop..."

His voice was hoarse.

None of his ghosts had ever done this before.

None of his ghosts had forgotten before.

She stared down at her hands.

" I'm sorry. I forgot. I forgot. I'm sorry."

He followed the trail in the mud to the thicker undergrowth, coarse brambles tugging at his jeans.

Her sobbing seemed so far away.

His foot accidentally hit a shoe.

A black shoe.

It was lying in the trail.

So maybe, just a little further, and there'd be a burial site-

Oh FUCK, OH FUCK, OH FUCK, he'd seen her legs- he'd seen her legs- he'd seen her legs-

He stumbled backwards, trying not to mess up the tracks, trying to forget seeing Mierfa's legs sticking out from underneath a bush.

One shoe on, one shoe off.

He whipped out his cell phone, pulled up the only contact he had.

" Is this Terezi?"

-

Terezi Pyrope, 32, was unique in a wide range of ways.

She was the town's youngest-ever police chief, the first woman to hold her title, and the first to be legally blind.

She was the only person in town that Karkat trusted.

Now, as the police arrived on the scene, she leaned forward on her custom-made cane and leered at him through her bright red glasses.

" Getting leads from your ghosties again, Mr. Vantas?"

He didn't mind her reputation as an eccentric.

It was better than his.

" You don't have to be a bitch about it."

She laughed and leaned forward on her cane.

" You've never been wrong, you have airtight alibis, and you always wear the same shoes."

The rolls of yellow tape were going up.

Mierfa walked through the brush.

" That can't be me," she said.

The snaps of camera shutters from the crime scene photographers filled the air.

" Karkat, is that the police chief? Tell her that that body can't be me!"

Terezi sniffed delicately.

" There's one thing that bothers me about you though. Why do you always smell so weird?"

He knew she was trying to distract him.

They were bringing the body out, to take it to the morgue, to do an autopsy.

" Karkat! Tell her!"

Except he had to ignore Mierfa, because he knew she was wrong.

He could see her short black hair peeking out from beneath the white sheet.

And he could see the dip in the sheet between the two halves of her body.

-

Mierfa followed him home quietly.

" I keep thinking about being alive," she whispered.

" Don't."

It was the first time he'd seen a recently deceased body.

The sight of her discarded shoe came up every time he closed his eyes.

" If I was still alive... I think I would've liked to be friends with you. I mean, I got you into a really dangerous situation today... What if the killer came back to the scene...? We could've..."

Except he knew that if she was really alive, she wouldn't have even needed to look at him. 

They had never talked before she died.

" Rose is going to draw up a profile and announce it on the news," he announced, cutting her off.

" Rose?"

They were at his apartment building.

" Lalonde."

He dug in his pocket for his key.

" Oh. What's a profile?"

He unlocked the door to his apartment.

" Basically, a review of a criminal's psyche and an explanation of why they do all the crazy shit they do, why they kill the people they kill. They're mostly used for serial killers."

He switched on his TV.

Two pieces of furniture in the living room- his TV and an old couch his older brother gave him.

Mierfa frowned at the beige walls.

" Serial killer, huh...? You don't decorate much..."

Evening news was on.

" Why should it matter how I fucking decorate?"

They were announcing a special news report.

" It's just very lonely."

" I see dead people, Mierfa, of course I'm a lonely piece of shit."

She didn't have anything to say in reply.

On TV, a brisk blonde woman was reading from a clipboard.

Another bit Karkat tried to ignore.

Something about 'disorganized with some organizational tendencies' came through.

Mierfa was glued to the screen.

" Did you hear that, Karkat? He left so much evidence at the scene, that the probability he'll be caught is over ninety percent!"

" Yeah." He lied through his teeth.

" There was an incredibly high chance that he'd kill again if I hadn't been found..."

Her eyes are sparkling.

He knows why.

Because most of all in her life, Mierfa Durgas had wanted to protect people.

" I kept other girls from being killed," she said.

His phone rings.

It's Terezi. He hits speaker phone.

" Yeah?"

" There was skin underneath her fingernails, and the DNA run hit a match fairly early into our database."

" So what's the point of the TV programme?"

" Easier to make 'em give themselves up than it is to orchestrate a raid."

Even great justice had a budget to go on.

Click. End call.

" So they're definitely going to catch him? Definitely?"

He doesn't look up from his phone.

" Yeah."

" I'm happy... I kept people safe..."

" Yeah."

And then Mierfa Durgas was gone.

-

Train tracks.

She fucking hated train tracks and she didn't know why.

She didn't know why anything happened in the world any more.

She couldn't remember anything except her name.

No one else saw her.

And it pissed her off.

It pissed her off, so bad.

How much time had passed?

She didn't know.

She didn't even know what to do.

She walked, in a daze, to the train station.

People were laughing.

Why were they having so much fun?!

It pissed her off, so much.

" Shut the fuck up!"

She tried to kick a metal column, but her foot sailed through it.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Do everything over again, get angrier and angrier, until you can't remember why you were angry in the first place. 

That's what she was going to do.

That's why she was there, she knew it.

To get so fucking pissed, no one would ignore her any more.

To get so fucking pissed, that she could remember why she was angry in the first place.

A dent on the metal column seemed to come about because of thin air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To get so fucking pissed, someone will finally acknowledge that sardines are way better on pizza than pepperoni
> 
> I'm so sorry I typed that


	3. Clocklocked

The truth was, he did decorate his apartment.

Just not his living room.

" Fuck."

He had become lost in thought, and pricked himself with a thumbtack.

The press release on Mierfa's murder had been modest, but he didn't care. The newspaper had carried an article on it, and that was all that mattered.

He pushed in the last tack and stood back to look at his memorial.

A smiling Mierfa Durgas held her MMA district champion trophy, pinned next to a newspaper clipping recounting the successful arrest of her killer.

The right wall in his bedroom was starting to run out of space; it'd be the second one he'd covered.

It had ballooned out of control after that accident, it seemed...

Like he'd even seen them before that thing happened.

He looked over his walls again, at all the faces of the dead. 

Only a few of them had even happened past 2000.

But Mierfa was gone.

It was time to run into another ghost, and help another ghost.

He guessed that he'd keep doing that until he was another ghost.

-

Today was train stations.

They were old and, through extensive remodeling, had become the local means of public transportation.

They were weirder than him, but maybe not as lonely.

About twenty of his ghosts had came from the train stations, a not-insignificant number, given the amount of time he'd been seeing them.

He looked around for people he'd seen before. Anyone behaving at odds with the small, perpetually hurried crowd.

Two boys sharing a cigarette.

A businesswoman reading the paper.

A huddle of giggling teenage girls.

Nobody jumped out.

He stood at the edge of the tracks, the tips of his ratty sneakers hanging over the concrete. 

It had never occurred to him.

How easy it would be to become a ghost.

His phone rang.

" ... Terezi?"

" Mr. Vantas, I was wondering if you'd help me look through some files that Sollux brought out. I already had the aides on overtime, and for some reason they don't wish to continue helping me with this great effort of justice."

He almost wanted to laugh.

" How long have you had those poor shits reading to you, Terezi? You know you can read without those ugly red glasses on."

A slight moment of silence.

" Only four hours. They took turns. But now Vriska is complaining that her eyes hurt, and Kanaya is sleeping on my desk."

" You're such a slave driver, Jesus shitting Christ."

So yes.

She laughed shrilly and hung up.

He took a step back from the tracks.

Those thoughts seemed like a forgotten daze...

" God! Godclammit! Fuck you, you shellfish motherglubbing fucker!"

He was surprised to hear a violent outburst and swiveled around.

No one else was paying it any attention.

A ghost...?

" If you could sea me, you'd glubbin' know how much I HATE you for deepdiving me of some much needed entertainment!"

Yeah, a very angry ghost.

He looked for her in the station.

" But noooooo, Nubby McShoaltstock gets a call from his gillfrond and it's off to life, Hallelufah!"

A skinny girl with impossibly long braids is flipping him off.

Her clothes are loosefitting on purpose, and she is literally the palest person he's ever seen. Even her blonde hair is the closest to cornsilk or platinum than he's ever seen out of a hair dye commercial.

Not that Karkat Vantas ever had the time to admire the many whimsical variations between human hair colours.

" Actually, I can see you, you bleached out bitch," he retaliates.

Her arms fall to her sides.

-

It was just something she did at the station, and suddenly it hurt like hell.

Because the short kid with the weird cheekbones and stupid-looking hair had heard her and he was looking at her and he could see her.

And somehow, being seen just pissed her off more. 

Because if this fucking reject of society could see her, then why...?

She scowled at him, and began to stride towards the giggling high school girls.

" Well you know what?"

She could hear the click of her vans on the ground.

One of the girls, one with ugly red glasses and thick blonde hair, looked up.

" You guys hear that?"

Her friends laughed.

" Come on, you're just clicking your tongue! You can't fool us like that!"

" I don't need you to see me!"

She pushed the blonde girl onto the tracks.

-

Karkat recognized the girl that looked up.

Terezi's sister, a senior at his school.

He didn't know her at all- just that Terezi had a family photo on her desk, and once (near the beginning, when she still assumed he had friends) she had mentioned her name.

Then the blonde ghost pushed her, and he didn't even think about how the hell it happened.

He just ran forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The whitest girl u kno ft. Meenah Peixes


	4. quiet / LOUD

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A girl flies. Karkat gets a grip. Meenah feels.

" Don't let go of my fucking hand," he hissed through clenched teeth.

They teetered at the side of the track, her heel caught on the edge.

She recognised him. The ghost kid.

Everyone at school knew about him. Everyone at school thought he was crazy.

But her older sister seemed to like him pretty well. It was something Latula remembered vividly from the last time Terezi had come to visit her and their mom.

" You may not believe it, but one of our most recent contributors to justice goes to Latula's school," she'd said, a sharp grin crinkling her nose. Her equally sharp glasses had been sliding down her nose.

" He says he can see ghosts, and he always wears the same shoes."

She had never considered him as anything but the ghost kid.

And now-

And now- 

He was her lifeline. 

She gripped the too-loose sleeve of his sweater and tried to steady herself. It would've been easier to get back onto the platform if he hadn't have been so short and skinny- it would've been easier if he was-

Don't think about it, Tulip. 

Don't think of things that hurt you when you're already on the edge.

He gripped her gloved hand with both of his bare ones and, with a heave, pulled her back on to the platform. Stumbling.

" Terezi's already invited me to her office to read papers for her or some shit."

He wasn't anywhere near as slick about it as-

Keep your thoughts quiet, Tulip, rather than loud.

" I... I guess so, I really haven't hung with her in a while..."

Keep all of that discordant screaming to yourself.

Keep quiet about the muffled, blurry cursing that no one else seems to hear.

-

He zoned pretty fucking far out when he read files to Terezi. 

When Latula and him had arrived, Vriska had nearly suffocated him with a hug, and then ran off, dragging a bleary Kanaya behind her. Karkat didn't talk to them at school- but here, in the neutral space of the police headquarters, they were friendly.

Kanaya chased him with a hairbrush, sometimes quietly offering small words of comfort and advice if she finally managed to convince him that his hair would look absolutely fucking super if he'd let her near it, goddammit.

Vriska loudly complained about nearly everything, from the shitty script they had to work with for the school play, to the shitty cape Eridan wore, to how shitty Tavros was in track, Jesus, Karkat, he'd be faster in a wheelchair!!!!!!!! 

And he found both of them very comforting. They were, after all, the only people he really knew from, if not at, school.

Wait, shit, what.

The picture leering up at him from the Missing Persons report was that pissed off girl from the train station, her platinum hair swept back into the same braids, her eyes the same fuchsia- 

But she had glasses. Bright pink, angled plastic glasses, with flourishes on top, on both sides.

"Mr. Vantas, why have you ceased reading?" There wasn't the usual sharpness, but rather quaint curiousity.

Latula looked up from her mint-condition Gameboy Colour to glance at the page.

" Hey, that chick kinda looks like Feferi!"

Karkat knew who she was talking about, but couldn't register the connection.

Feferi Peixes was one of the more popular seniors, coming from a fairly wealthy European family that had quietly settled on the outskirts of town to retire neatly from loud city life. They'd been hovering there for as long as Karkat could remember- before then, and before then- but had stayed in his peripheral vision.

Wealthy foreigners weren't mysterious. They were simply perfect at everything, something he was not.

Feferi herself was as far removed from the train station ghost as possible. Though he'd heard Vriska complain about how her shiny black hair was a dyejob, and how she tanned for like ages, jeez, was she a cancer fetishist or something- 

Though he'd heard that-

He still couldn't associate the pair.

Until he looked down and saw the name printed underneath the pictures.

Meenah Peixes, 19.

MISSING SINCE MARCH 29TH, 199X.

And he realized that hey, maybe those dyejobs and all that tanning was so that Feferi Peixes didn't have to look in the mirror and see an older sister she could barely remember.

" I have to leave..."

He didn't offer an explanation.

He left.

-

And dam it all, even after all her cursing and yelling, he'd left with that stupid-looking blonde girl in tow.

And damn it all, she was starting to feel bad about pushing that stupid-looking blonde girl just to prove a point.

He'd seen her, he'd talked to her (however bitingly) and he'd...

Well, she couldn't think up a third thing, but who gave a fuck?

Maybe he'd come back, and there could be a third thing.

It was hella lonely to have nobody to talk to.

Maybe the kid that could see her would come back.

She almost wanted to cry out loud.

Yeah, she almost wanted to cry into her own hands, quietly.

... But damn it all, she was starting to remember blurry things- a party, piercings, and a little girl with long hair, glaring up at her.

Ah yes, she was in a world of hurt; she'd never left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sweet fucking helen of troy how did I write this much
> 
> I'm so sorry I haven't updated my phone is broken ~beyond belief~ (lol elvis costello) and I just now figured out how to get around it  
> Also lmao I am so confused as to how 16 different people have independently read and liked this fic well enough to kudo it  
> Thanks much <3


	5. Hidden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat is reminded of his brother. Terezi begins to piece together a strange case. Meenah waits at the train station.

He didn't go back to the train station.

Instead, he went to his apartment, and took the bathroom mirror out of his closet.

He sat criss-cross applesauce on the floor, and stared down at his reflection. 

Was it his?

He saw, instead, a novelist.

An unkept one, surely.

His hair wasn't anywhere near as neat as normal; his sweater was too big and too dark. And perhaps he was a bit too young?  
He tilted his head up, imitating snobbery. It just made him feel stupid.

What had been the point of getting the mirror out? He still hated his reflection. 

He felt like flinging it across the room, but knew that it would just make him feel like a piece of shit.

In Karkat Vantas's experience, violence never solved anything.

It just left ghosts.

But the mirror-

But his brother-

His brother, who he despised, who talked too much, who had never had a girlfriend- his idealist, fretful, insecure brother-

His brother, who'd given him nearly everything he owned-

The mirror was the only way he could see his brother, and he never wanted to see him again.

It hurt too much.

-

The station was empty, aside from Terezi. 

She took the opportunity to take off her glasses and sort very carefully through the papers that Sollux had retrieved for her, that the aides and Karkat had read out loud. Something had stuck with her- an insidious, negative tug that she called her sense of justice.

She pulled out the papers that had caught her attention. Two missing persons reports, two arrest records, and a statement that had been filed with the police.

It wasn't much to go on.

But she knew she had an ace up her sleeve- Karkat had reacted so strongly to the missing persons report he'd seen that he'd actually gotten up and left. If the kid really could see ghosts- a really big if, she had to admit- then he'd probably seen that girl's. Hell, even if he made shit up, he'd probably help her out; Vantas didn't have much faith in his powers of deduction, but they were obviously potent. 

And the arrest records-

No, just two pages removed from seperate records. She felt across her desk for her stapler, and then neatly attached the two at the top left corner. 

They were from the same night, same location, same time. But neither mentioned its obvious partner. It was beyond ridiculous- it was downright suspicious. Any officer worth his weight would've at least mentioned... And why had they been pulled from their respective folders in the first place?

Why had they been shoved into a box of cold cases? In the station's barely-used storage room?

It felt like someone had been trying to hide them, and had inadvertently put them alongside the very files that would bring them to her attention.

Her eyes were starting to hurt; she rubbed her eyelids and brought the papers closer to her face (they now nearly touched the tip of her nose- the letters remained faintly blurry). 

Meenah Peixes. 18. Public Intoxication; Underage Drinking.  
Arrested at party in Welsh Trainyard after several complaints were filed by the residents of the houses across street. 

She turned the page slowly.

Damara Megido. 17. Assault and Battery.  
Arrested at party in Welsh Trainyard after several complaints were filed by the residents of the houses across street, while in fight with [REDACTED], who was intoxicated at the time.

She realized what she'd need to do. 

She'd have to call in favors.

And that would have to wait till morning- even justice had to catch a little shut eye, no matter what the comics said.

-

Ah, it was so late.

No one else was in the station; it was closed. She thought of herself as hidden away and secure when it was like this.

Just her and the train station.

It made her think of the party (where was it held...? Why did it hurt...?).

The beginning of the end (yet when had it ended...?).

She should've seen it then (when?)- that it wouldn't work out (why?), that she couldn't work underneath that bastard (who?)- but, being as stupid and strapped for cash as she'd been, she'd ignored all the signs (what signs?).

And she couldn't remember how or when she died, but she knew she was dead because of that, of them (who, Meenah?). Fuckin' bassholes.

The chains on the door rattled and something clanked.

Creaking, a door closing.

" Meenah, are you still here? I want to talk to you."

Oh.

For once, fate had decided not to fuck around with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh gee I wonder if the plot is going to further itself or get SUDDENLY DERAILED by CRAZY SHIT I sure hope that doesn't happen we were actually getting something  
> Also wtf my kudos nearly fuckin doubled after I published quiet / LOUD you guys are fuckin fast


	6. Confessions / Morgues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is about Kanaya Maryam and Rose Lalonde, and something that will fuck everybody else over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is longer because IM TYPING IT ON A COMPUTER HALLELUJAH

Kanaya Maryam knew exactly what romance was.

She'd read books, and watched movies, and listened to her classmates complain about their relationship problems. 

And she didn't know why, but Terezi hadn't come to work, despite her usual punctuality. Vriska was at track practice; Sollux was probably home playing video games (despite being in his late twenties). 

That meant it was just her and Rose.

Rose.

She wasn't really sure why Rose, one of the most gifted profilers in the country, had moved to their small town. She'd once briefly mentioned a personal interest in a case there- but she never said anything about it after that- six months ago, when Kanaya had begun her internship at the police station. It was an extra credit at school.

It was a way to talk to the brisk blonde woman she seemed to see there every day, walking to her classes.

Terezi had apparently finished going through the box of files she'd had Sollux lug out, so Kanaya put the lid back on it and picked it up, to take it back to the storage room.

She was about halfway there when she ran into Rose.

" Oh, that's just the box I was looking for!" the blonde said in pleased surprise, smiling. 

Kanaya felt a blush and a stammer coming on.

Rose strided by her, all business, like she always was-

" Come to my office, Kanaya, and let's go through it. There are some files in there that have falsified information on them."

Falsified information?

But she smiled, nervously, tried to be proud and mature, and followed Rose, trying to keep the same brisk pace.

-

Rose's office was somewhat messy, but comfortable. A half-knitted scarf was lying next to a spool of yarn on her desk, a stack of intricately cut paper lying on top of the handle of a violet box cutter. The two chairs there were so plush that Kanaya was a bit afraid that if she sat down, she'd sink into the stuffing and get stuck.

Rose sweeped it all to the side, and motioned for Kanaya to set the box down.

She did, looked up with a smile, tried her hardest not to scream out loud because it didn't matter if she was still in high school and it didn't matter if Rose was like sixteen years older than her, because she was alone with Rose in her office and they were going to go through papers together and everything was going to be wonderful for the rest of forever.

She immediately became embarrassed simply because of the thought. It was not dignified, it was not mature, it wasn't what she wanted to think in this situation.

She wanted to remain calm and composed and witty.

She wanted to be herself.

Rose had taken the lid off the box.

" We're looking for some missing persons reports and two arrest records," she said briskly, pulling a neat stack of papers out.

Kanaya pulled the other chair up and sat down carefully, trying not to sink too much into the plush lining.

A stack of papers.

Half an hour passed, and Kanaya began to wonder why the files were so important- perhaps they were related to the case that Rose was working on?

But when she looked up, Rose was absorbed in her third stack of paper.

She said nothing.

The office was quiet- just a clock ticking away...

She reached up to get more papers, but...

" They're not here," Rose said quietly.

Kanaya swallowed thickly.

" Terezi must have them, then. Can't we simply ask her to give them back? You said they've got falsified information on them, after all..."

Tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear.

Rose sank back into her chair.

" You love me, don't you, Kanaya?" she asked, looking to the ceiling.

Kanaya bolted up in her seat. She knew, but how could she know- she has a psychology major, Kanaya, she cursed herself. Of course she'd know- you left yourself wide open, you silly girl.

But then, why now...? Why was she asking now...?

The girl looked down at her lap, her carefully clasped (shaky) hands.

" Yes, I do."

-

The thing was, Meenah was just as confused about everything as he was.

She couldn't seem to remember anything concretely- it rushed by her, she said, faster than a fuckin' flying fish. Images of parties and some little kid, fleeting moments that she couldn't grasp, but that she tenuously associated with an immense pain.

" I think I get it," he said, poring over it all in his head. Something still bothered him.

" But Meenah- how the fuck did you push Latula into the train tracks?"

She shrugged.

" Normally I can only touch shit if I'm hella pissed, but I reely dunno 'boat that time. I just finda felt... powerful," she remarked thoughtfully. "Like there was somefin in the air, if you want me to be sappy aboat it."

They sat in silence for a moment.

" Oh, whatever, I can deal wit' being on the jet stream to Davy Jones' locker."

She held her legs up and stared at her shoes.

" Just finda wanna know why, y'know? I don't give a ship aboat the bein' dead part."

He contemplated her bizarre approach for a moment, and then sighed.

" I do too, y'know? It doesn't make any sense to me. You don't make any goddamn sense to me."

The train station was quiet and dark.

" Y'wanna go do it or not, shoalstack? Floatin' around in the station ain't doing us any good."

Meenah freaked him out, a little.

" I mean, there reely isn't anyfin else for us to do."

Us.

" What d'you mean, us? Who says I won't just up and leave?"

She twirled a braid around her finger.

" I don't have anybody else to talk to."

He guessed that was a good enough reason.

He always had someone- they just always left. That's what it was like, to kick it with the dead.

She didn't have anyone because she was dead.

" Then I need to talk to Terezi tomorrow. She has a missing persons report that was filed for you."

She smiled.

" I'm not gonna get all up in your personar space or anyfin, so I guess I'll see ya tomorrow."

He stood up and left-

but he stopped at the door, and without facing the pale spectre, simply said:

" Yeah."

-

Cut forward. Cut out a sleepless night. Cut out Meenah pacing around the train tracks for wont of anything better to do.

Cut forward, to the morning, to Karkat Vantas walking to the police station.

He doesn't know that, at the moment, Kanaya and Rose are about to do something extremely immoral; he doesn't know that Terezi is at the hospital, going through all of their records. 

All he knows is that Meenah is walking behind him and talking so loudly that he honestly can't tell the difference between the normal words and the fish puns. 

Now that the tone's set, here's the scene.

-

Meenah was loud.

He could deal with loud.

Just having company was always a relief.

She poked his back.

" Aw shit, nubs, it worked!"

He stopped and looked back at her.

What did she mean and how did she touch him?

He couldn't say anything to the air.

" I'm not tellin' ya my seacret yet, aight?"

She put her finger to her lips conspiratorially, silent for a moment.

Then she laughed, and ran past him, turning to jog backwards with her hands in her pockets.

" Herring the fuck up, I don't know where the shell I'm goin'," she called, and he had to run to keep up with her.

" Goddammit, could you just be patient and quit doing the poor man's moonwalk?"

Karkat Vantas hated running.

But she didn't slow down, or turn around, even when he'd caught up to her. She just laughed even more.

So he ended up running with a ghost to the police station.

He felt... a little...

Different.

He leaned against the glass door before going in, catching his breath, and she teased him.

" You're reely outta shape, for a buoy who hangs out wit' ghosts for fin," she said, and then the smile fell off of her face.

" There's somefin goin' on in there."

He didn't know why she said it, but then he felt it too, creeping into the back of his head, and it made him want to throw up.

It was the like the feeling he'd had when he saw Mierfa's legs- but he wasn't seeing anything like that.

So what...?

He lifted his back away from the door, and then turned, and then opened it, and then heard footsteps he'd heard a thousand times.

Meenah walked through the glass.

A red skirt; a black shirt; short, neat hair; yes, it was Kanaya.

But it couldn't be Kanaya.

Where was everyone else?

Since when were Kanaya's clothes so red?

" I... I'm sorry, Karkat," she said lamely. " I had to."

And she dropped the box cutter on the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M LAUGHING SO FUCKING HARD OH GOD I'M A HORRIBLE PERSON


	7. Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Terezi unknowingly confronts a problem beyond her limited expertise. Karkat and Meenah are confronted by a murder. And Kanaya confronts a very simple truth.

She hadn't been to the hospital for something like this in ages.

Smooth jazz filtered in through speakers, the beige walls holding up warmly coloured modern art. An old couple sat on a sofa, waiting to be called by the nurse.

But she only saw blurs.

And then there was a hand on hers- and the scent of mint.

" Terezi? Is that you? It's been so long! Are your eyes-"

She stood resolutely, as always. Terezi Pyrope did not believe in the concept of pity, even from the well-meaning.

" I need to go through the patient records- "

The blurry, red tinted mint tilted her head and Terezi assumed she was making a whimsical expression.

" But you're not on duty right now, are you?"

" Justice never sleeps, Meulin, and it doesn't relax either. This is an incredibly important matter."

She paused.

" Though most of my currently non-existent evidence is looking to be circumstantial."

The hand, removed.

Meulin was obviously contemplating the request- but regardless of how she personally felt about it, she was obligated to oblige it.

After all, she owed a good deal of her day-to-day life to Terezi Pyrope.

" ... Alright. Follow me," the mint-scented woman said, though she knew that they'd done this a few times before, though she knew Terezi could memorize a path the first time she walked on it.

So the pair walked down twisting hallways, and Meulin attempted small talk.

" Sooo, Terezi, how's it going at home?"

" It's the same as ever, Meulin. Extra paperwork from the office and an occasional phone call from my family."

Silence, and a gray door, at the end of a grey hallway.

" The lock's broken, so we can just go on in."

Another happy smile that Terezi can barely see.

-

" Oh my fucking god."

Kanaya Maryam, of all people? Honestly, he thought that if anybody he knew snapped and killed somebody, it'd have to be Vriska.

But there they were, standing in the police station.

He was at a loss for words.

" I didn't want to. I had to, I'm so sorry, but you've got to understand!"

She burst into tears.

" I HAD TO! I had to, she was going to die anyway!"

Scarlet.

But he'd seen a lot of horrible things, right? Just... just calming Kanaya down wouldn't be hard.

" Meenah. Go try and find out who..."

" Who is that girl?"

Arms wrapped around her own waist, she stared at thin air.

At Meenah.

Karkat swallowed thickly.

" What are you talking about, Kanaya? There isn't anyone there..." He lied through his teeth, and took a half step closer to her.

There was blood on her shirt. How did he forget that?

" Yeah, yeah, waterva, I'll just prawnce around back here unkeel I find a murder scene. You look finda tied up anyways."

Meenah, hands in pockets, walked around Kanaya and to the station's offices.

Kanaya's eyes followed her.

" Now please, just, just calm the fuck down, and tell me what the fuck happened, and please say this is all just some sort of fucking joke and that you didn't murder anyone-"

" I... Is that girl a ghost?"

She put her hands up to her face.

" Then..."

" Please stop, Kanaya," he finally choked out, and took every step forward he needed to hug her.

It's not every day that you lose a family member.

-

A stack of papers tucked into a neat beige folder, Terezi Pyrope strode out of the records room, her cane tapping briskly in front of her, Meulin closing the door behind her.

" So, Meulin, how's it going at home?"

There was a pause in the clacking footsteps.

" My boyfriend's moving in with me next week."

Terezi laughed.

" Lucky you. I've never had the time to love anyone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been meaning to update for like, the past month, you guys. I am so sorry it's been so long. And I'm also very sorry this chapter is so short.


	8. Honesty / Falsehood

She had never really opened up to him- but since he was always at the station, she'd grown to know him fairly well. At school they had no classes together- so that was why she never talked to the boy who said he saw ghosts...

In the police station -around Terezi- he talked much more often. Mostly just reading for her, or calling in bizarrely accurate tips, but he talked. She caught snippets of his life story occasionally, and over time, she started to talk to him.

In between filing menial paperwork and bring Sollux coffee, she tried to offer Karkat small pieces of advice. And at some point, he became the one starting the conversations.

His brother was dead.

He never talked about his parents.

He lived alone.

And maybe it was because of these things, or perhaps just her admittedly maternal nature, but she couldn't stand to see him walking around, looking for all the world like no one cared for him. So she put a brush into her purse when she went to the station in the afternoon, and tucked his sweater in for him, and asked about his day. 

She reasoned that someone as lonely as Karkat Vantas needed to have at a least a semblance of a family. 

She didn't think he'd ever return the favor.

Kanaya wrested herself from his grasp and wiped her eyes awkwardly with her sleeve.

" I... I'm sorry... I just... Thisn't very dignified of me, is it..."

He looked taken aback, his hands smeared with a thin coat of Rose's blood from her shirt.

" You're bleeding." 

And yes, she was.

\- 

Rose looked down, picked up the box cutter on her desk.

" Kill me."

It felt like something inside of her had crunched, imploded. Kanaya almost didn't comprehend what she'd said for a moment. Because it was ridiculous. Why would Rose ask her to do something like that over some silly papers?

" There was no falsified information. We can't ask Terezi for the files. I was going to burn them."

How could anyone look so calm saying such things? What did she even mean? Kanaya felt sick, like she was going to throw up, and the sight of the violet box cutter in Rose's hand seemed to amplify itself. 

Rose leaned across her desk and smiled comfortingly.

" Kanaya, dear, I'm asking you to do this because I trust you. You wouldn't want worse to happen to me, would you?"

The words seemed to flow like water into her head, pooling, rippled, splashed, evaporated, then beginning to stream in again. What could be worse than dying? What could possibly be worse than dying? 

" I... We're in a police station, Rose, I can't..." 

She felt like something was collapsing.

" We're alone. There wouldn't be any witnesses. It'd be simple, really. If you'd allow it, I could slash your cheek; and then, of course, you could say it was self-defense. That I grew infuriated when I discovered that the files I wanted to destroy had already been found and that I took my rage out on you. Maybe no one would believe you at first- but, considering what files I was looking for, and who sent me here-" 

Who sent me here. 

Who sent me here.

Who sent me here.

" Who sent you here?" 

She finally managed an interjection.

Rose paused.

" I'd really rather not let that bother you-"

" I can't just kill you for no reason!" 

Silence.

Rose looked directly into her eyes.

" I am one of the nation's best criminal profilers, something you undoubtedly know. But I am also an information broker, and I came to this town at the behest of a... third party, who has a good deal of time and money invested in finding something that was stolen from him eleven years ago." 

Kanaya thought of the days she walked by the station on the way to school, when she would quickly peek in a back window to see Rose looking over paperwork, hard at work. And when she applied for internship, and all of the days when she'd hold nervous conversation with Rose, and all of the times in the middle of the night when she'd brought her a snack from the open 24/7 store down the street, and everything in her life that had revolved around Rose's dedication to finding the perpetrators of horrendous crimes. 

It was all just a sham.

" What does that have to do with anything?" she managed to choke out, and she felt her composure break, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

" What do you think will happen to me when Terezi Pyrope realizes there's a case here? Involving thousands of dollars of stolen money? Involving crime lords and power plays? I was supposed to delete the evidence. Make sure that a legitimate law enforcement agency never realized anything was going on. Now, instead, I'm going to be the one deleted. I'd at least like it to be on my own terms." 

But she still couldn't... 

She'd never be able to... 

" I can't!" Kanaya cried, and sobbed, and when she got up to run away from the room and from life and from her ever-so-easily broken illusions of happiness, Rose Lalonde stood just as quickly, leaned over her desk, and cut her cheek with the box cutter. 

"People who say that they 'can't' do something are normally the ones best suited to doing it." 

\- 

Terezi was briskly striding her brisk way back to the station, to call on Karkat and ask him to read the files to her, when her phone rang. She paused, and tucked her cane underneath her arm to rummage in her pants pocket for her cell phone.

It was the ringtone she'd set to go off for Karkat- though of course, he hardly ever called anyone.

She hit the "accept call" button and put the phone up to her ear.

" Mr. Vantas-"

" Oh my God, holy shit, Terezi, where are you? Get to the fucking police station, please, I think Kanaya just killed someone, I have no idea what the fuck is going on, and also she's bleeding and I have blood all over my favorite goddamn sweater and this is a train wreck, this is a literal fucking honest-to-god train wreck-"

Someone murdered?

In her police station?

By one of HER interns?

Utterly ridiculous. 

Somewhat ironic.

Definitely reputation-damaging.

" Calm down, Mr. Vantas, I'm only three blocks away; I'll be there in no time at all to properly examine the situation, and administer-"

" This isn't time for your justice bullshit, Terezi!" 

She was quiet for a moment (thought of days long past-) and then she finally managed to summon a reply. 

" It was a wonderful day for me, Karkat, when I realized that justice had nothing to do with the law."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PA R A D O X S P A C E  
> i am so excited about it oh mygod. oh my god. take this fic update i banged it out of my keyboard in a sweet tea-induced haze of euphoria and excitement  
> happy 413
> 
> 4.16.14 / Mr_Scapegrace just pointed out a continuity error in the text for me, so I went ahead and fixed the offense. Don't write when you're really happy, guys


	9. Worthy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Terezi confronts a murder. Karkat confronts an uneasy feeling. Meenah is asked for a favor.

Karkat disliked the sight of blood. Immensely.

It reminded a bit of his brother.

Though he didn't want it to.

The blood on his sweater and his hands...

Was Kanaya's. Rose's.

The station door opened, and Terezi tapped in, looking, at best, mildly fazed by the fact that someone had been murdered in her police station. 

" Well, Mr. Vantas, Ms. Maryam, can I have a proper explanation for what's going on here?"

Murder. Self-defense? 

He couldn't think of anything to say. 

Normally, he'd try to shove a thousand words out of his mouth at once, but it just wasn't working. He felt like a fucking idiot.

It was Kanaya who broke the silence.

" ... She came at me with a box cutter. I didn't know what to do. I had no idea what to do. I didn't want to hurt her. But I had to. It felt like a bad joke. I... I don't know why she did it. I'm sorry..."

She sounded so mechanical.

" Is that so." 

Terezi's voice was flat, with a sharp edge. She suddenly snapped her cane up and pointed it at Karkat.

" Did you see any part of these events, Mr. Vantas?"

He struggled with words for a moment, trying to snap out of that sudden haze. 

" No. No, I didn't, I just came in and there was blood abso-fucking-lutely everywhere."

The cane went down, and Terezi leaned on it- Karkat recognized it as her thinking pose. There was a long, uncomfortable silence- he didn't want to move, and Kanaya was just standing next to him with her arms wrapped around her waist. 

Finally, Terezi straightened her back and smiled leerily.

" This was obviously a case of self-defense, and as a result, it's my recommendation that no serious legal action be pursued. Miss Maryam will stay with extended family for a period of time to recover from this greatly stressing event. It goes without saying that the trial will be short and uneventful."

Karkat felt like something was off.

 

It wasn't like her to immediately dismiss a case like this- she hadn't even asked who Kanaya had killed. Was there something he didn't know?

Meenah appeared suddenly in the hallway, and was running over.

" 'Ey! Nubs! I acshelly know this gill!"  
He tried not to react to her, because it would just be weird, talking to the air- but Kanaya jumped and turned to look at the ghost.

" Her name was Rose Lalonde!"

Meenah had stopped right outside their little huddle, and now seemed to be awaiting a reaction.

Terezi pushed her glasses back up her nose, though she hadn't needed to. 

" Any questions?"

None.

Nothing he wanted to say out loud, at least. But he suddenly realized that, for the first time in his life, he wasn't prepared to trust Terezi.

Normally, she was a merciless interrogator, even in clear cases of self-defense, or accidents. It wasn't like her to just... let something like murder pass. Regardless of cause.

And it clicked then...

Terezi had listened to him read Meenah's missing persons report. Meenah knew Rose somehow. 

And Terezi knew that.

And Rose's car was the only one parked outside, close enough to the station for her to have distinguished its shape and color, enough for her to have known it was Rose's. 

There was something going on there.

" You need to go home and change out of those bloodied clothes, Mr. Vantas. I'll call you in for formal questioning tomorrow."

" Terezi-"

" You need to leave."

It was the coldest thing he'd ever heard her say to him.

-

Meenah followed him home.

" You didn't tell me your gillfrond was the chief of poolice," she teased. 

" She's like thirty something, Meenah, that's fucking gross."

" If I was eelive, I'd probs be pike thirty somefin! Am I gross?"

She was kind of unnerving, really, since he knew she'd just seen a dead body and she apparently didn't give a shit.

" You're not alive though," he pointed out, and to his consternation, she smiled at him sharply.

" You sayin' you don't sink I'm gross? What d'ya sink of me, then?"

" I think you're fucking creepy. Weren't you just staring down a dead body or some shit?"

He realized she'd followed him all the way to his apartment building. 

" You steer down ghosts every day, but ya get bothered by bodies?"

The top of the stairs, thank God.

He got out his key and unlocked his door.

" Sociopath."

She shrugged.

" Stuff pike that just doesn't mess with me that bad."

He flopped down on his couch, and, after a moment, came to a decision.

" If I told you it would help me find out what happened to you, would you do something for me?"

She grinned.

" Pike what?"

" ... I need you to go back to the police station, and see what Terezi's doing."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO, AFTER AN EON OF SILENCE, THE UPDATE HAS ARRIVED. 
> 
> Anyway it took me a minute to get this uploaded bc my new phone is like. So fucked. You wouldnt believe  
> Chapter title is a little vague, but i hope that it carries the weight of the text: Kanaya's decision to go with Rose's lie, Karkat's uneasiness with Terezi's behavior, and lastly, the favor Karkats requests from Meenah. These are all things based on trust, and/or love, or lack thereof.


	10. future. / past.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HI IM BACK  
> my friends irl are forcing me to finish this fic so like. rejoice n shit
> 
> A past revisited, and a crime scene removed.

She was playing with… a doll.

Empty eyes.

Cornsilk hair.

Keeping quiet so her mama would not hear her and get mad.

Even though her mama was two stories down.

But the doll was boring. Feferi wanted something new.

She set it down, and quietly slipped out of her room. Meenah’s was across the hall. She hardly ever left it locked- even when she had friends over, like she did at the time.  
Meenah’s friends were normally nice and understanding; Porrim had even sewn her a nice coat once (that her mama had made her throw away). Rufioh and Damara were either quiet or loudly unintelligible (secretly, she was a little scared of Damara). Though recently Aranea had been coming around way more than the rest of them.  
Feferi stood at her sister’s door and tried to listen in- snooping was getting to be a habit of hers.

“ Aigh, this is how the boat sinks-”

“-drop out, got the papers filed-”

“-coming with us?”

“-guppy’s my lil’ sis, gotta watch out for ‘er!”

“-out of you.” Surprised, amused.

Feferi reached up and opened the door.

The air was bitter with tobacco smoke- it made her eyes sting. 

Meenah was sitting on the edge of her bed, naked, smoking.

She jumped up when she saw Feferi, grabbing the blanket, which had been covering Aranea.

“MOTHERFUCK! I thought I locked that!”

Aranea simply moved her pillow to cover herself.

Feferi rubbed her eyes a little blearily, as all the abrupt movement had stirred the smoke. She stood still, watching quietly as her older sister spat curses and wiggled hurriedly into previously discarded clothes.

“ God, Feferi, I’ve sank your innocence, how am I s’posed to explain lesbifin sex to a five year old, is this my punfishment for all that underage drinking, I am so wrecked-”  
“ What does ‘drop out’ mean?”

Meenah paused and stared at her sister.

“ How much a’ that did you hear?”

 

-

 

Karkat Vantas was weird.

Meenah liked that.

Nothing she hated more than a casual fuckin’ scrub trying to act liike they knew everything (though that had been her first impression of Aranea, and-)

She stopped, staring at the sidewalk.

Who was Aranea?

It wasn’t important- she had to get back to the police station to see what the hell was going on with Rose and the teenage lesbian. She started floating forward again.  
She remembered Rose’s face- a keen set of eyes, a year below her in school, though at the time, she hadn’t been attending- she was with someone… who…?  
Meenah had a sudden, intense headache. Which didn’t make any glubbin’ sense, she was dead- dead people don’t get headaches (or at the very least, she figured they weren’t supposed to). She’d have to ask Vantas about that when she got back; it pissed her off.

The police station was eerily quiet; Meenah noted that the sole car which had been outside was gone. When she went through the glass of the door, she could see blood splatters on the tile floor, leading from the room she’d seen Rose’s body in.

She could hear muffled sobbing from somewhere deeper in the station, and followed it along the hallway.

The source was starkly labeled ‘INTERROGATION ROOM’. 

When she poked her head through the door and floated in, she could see the girl that had killed Rose- hadn’t Vantas called her “Kanaya” or something like that? She was curled up in a ball on one of the chairs.

“ Ay, um, you’re Kanaya, right?”

She didn’t really expect her to respond; she was used to the silent treatment. But the sobs stopped and Kanaya looked up at her. Her hair was disheveled, and there was a bandage on her face; her eyes were puffy and red.

“ What did he do?” she whispered.

Meenah stared at her, two different kinds of shocks jolting her.

“ Wait, wade, wade, so you CAN sea me-”

“ I killed Rose and now I can see ghosts. Th-that means, if I’m following correctly, Karkat…”

“ Hey listen, I’ve only known Carpkat for a coupla days, but he ain’t offed nobody. He’s not that kinda guppy, ya know?” Meenah protested, because it seemed ridiculous to think that he could’ve killed anyone- seemed to her he was all up about helping the dead, not making more of them.

Kanaya laughed- and it twisted something deep in Meenah’s being- that dry, hopeless cynicism sounded so familiar…

“ I never wanted to hurt Rose, ghost girl. I loved her. I loved her and she knew I did, and in the end I just got played like a damn fool-”

The door closed.

“Who are you talking to, Maryam? Have you contracted a case of the ghosties too now?”

Terezi stood there, cane and hospital folders in hand.

“Now, you’re going to tell me why Rose came to Caledfwlch.”

 

-

 

He grabbed a bottle of water from his fridge and curled up on his couch. His sweater was coated in blood and it was smeared on his hands too (thank God no one had called the police on him walking home- but would anyone have come to get him, anyway?), but Karkat didn’t even have the energy to take a shower; he was emotionally shot, through and through.

Kanaya had killed Rose.

Terezi was going to cover it up.

Kanaya wasn’t that kind of person- she was fussy, and meddlesome, and a bit too optimistic, but she wasn’t a murderer. Even if Rose had hurt her, Kanaya wasn’t the kind of person to kill her in retaliation…

He wanted to lay down, but the couch would get even more stained if he did- maybe he should’ve taken a shower, after all. But then again, Meenah would come back soon, and she’d already established that she had absolutely no regard whatsoever for his personal space.

It felt like nothing was real- that his life had finally finished its bizarre metamorphosis into a super shitty comic book.

Karkat the Ghost Boy, who used the powers he gained in a tragic accident to make up for… being so fucking stupid.

It was so frustrating.

He hadn’t asked for any of this shit.

He certainly wished none of it had ever happened.

The feeling of blood sticking to his skin and congealing was nauseating and he couldn’t stand it any more. He stood up and pulled his sweater off, throwing at hard as he could in the general direction of the washing machine.

“ Why the fuck can’t people get along?!” he screamed at the empty room. 

There was no answer from his blank white walls. There wouldn’t be an answer from anybody. The entire rest of the world was busy with its own problems. He’d just have to fix shit himself, like usual.

But could he even come close to fixing this trainwreck?

Karkat Vantas was growing up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> writing fic is so exhausting but I just keep coming back to it. why

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I've published my Homestuck fanfiction, so yeah.


End file.
